Free Will Astrology | July 24-30

ARIES (March 21-April 19) Anna Renalda Hyatt, a reader from Colorado, bragged to me about her prowess. “My capacity for expressing love far surpasses that of anyone I have ever met,” she wrote. “I am a Sublime Genius of Love, a Master of Unconditional Compassion, a Virtuoso of Deep Empathy.” Your assignment in the coming days, Aries, is to compete with her: Unleash a perfect storm of ingenious passion that will ignite subtle revolutions everywhere you go. Explore the frontiers of smart love.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Your teeth aren’t white enough. Your laugh sounds weird. Something’s amiss with the way you solve problems; I’m not sure what, I just know you’ve got a disability there. And as for your hair: Could you please change it so it doesn’t make you appear so out of touch with reality? OK, now relax. Everything I just said was a bad joke — it wasn’t true at all. I wanted to show you how susceptible you are to believing the lie that you should be different from what you actually are. The fact is, Taurus, this is an excellent time for you to practice feeling a total acceptance of and curious fascination with yourself. Try saying this out loud: “I am perfectly myself.”

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) At the end of a recent school year, only 37 percent of New York’s high school students passed the state-administered math exam. Instead of withholding diplomas from the other 63 percent, officials nullified the results and eased the standards for future tests. Normally I’m queasy about lowering the criteria for success, but in this case I approve. Math is absurdly overvalued as an educational necessity. There are many other subjects that should get more emphasis in the high school curriculum. Teach logic, not algebra! Teach critical thinking, not trigonometry! My rant is a prelude to the climax of your horoscope, which is this: Stop pushing so hard to accomplish a task that’s really not all that important in the long run.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) During a trip to India, my friend Jeff paid a boatman to row him out into the Ganges River for a little recreational cruise. When they got there, the boatman stopped and refused to move, let alone row him back to shore, unless Jeff forked over a surcharge. Don’t let something like that happen to you in the coming week, Cancerian. Always have a well-planned arrangement, agreed on in advance, to come back from wherever you’re brave enough to go. Be experimental, yes. Explore new territory, yes. Be willing to surrender some control, yes. But make sure you’ve got a return ticket.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) “Everybody experiences far more than he understands,” said philosopher Marshall McLuhan. “Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behavior.” This is always true, but it will have special meaning for you in the coming days. You’re about to be inundated by a flood of raw perceptions, sensations, and feelings, and only a fraction of it will be namable, let alone comprehensible. That shouldn’t be a problem, though. Your job is simply to marvel at all the novelty that’s flowing in, not to be in an anxious hurry to define it.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Your life story is about to deepen and sweeten and get more interesting — if, that is, you follow the trail of clues into the dark forest, and if, as you travel, you hum songs that are both sad and happy, and if you call on the spirit of your favorite dead person to accompany you. Of course, you’re perfectly free to refuse the call of your destiny, and never even take a glance into the dark forest. But in my opinion, that would cheat you out of some profound fun that has the potential to teach you and tune you for many years to come.